The Pursuit of Holiness, includes Study Guide

by Jerry Bridges

In a sense he is in a partnership with God, and he will reap its benefits only when he has fulfilled his own responsibilities.

Farming is a joint venture between God and the farmer. The farmer cannot do what God must do, and God will not do what the farmer should do.

We pray for victory when we know we should be acting in obedience.

The second reason is that we do not understand the proper distinction between God’s provision and our own responsibility for holiness.

life. But holiness is not only expected; it is the promised birthright of every Christian.

Our first problem is that our attitude toward sin is more self-centered than God-centered. We are more concerned about our own “victory” over sin than we are about the fact that our sins grieve the heart of God. We cannot tolerate failure in our struggle with sin chiefly because we are success-oriented, not because we know it is offensive to God. W. S. Plumer said, “We

This is not to say God doesn’t want us to experience victory, but rather to emphasize that victory is a by-product of obedience.

“Is it wise to proclaim in so bald, naked, and unqualified a way as many do, that the holiness of converted people is by faith only, and not at all by personal exertion? Is it according to the proportion of God’s Word? I doubt it. That faith in Christ is the root of all holiness . . . no well-instructed Christian will ever think of denying. But surely the Scriptures teach us that in following holiness the true Christian needs personal exertion and work as well as faith.”[4]

“the little foxes that ruin the vineyards”

It is compromise on the little issues that leads to greater downfalls.

It is not the importance of the thing, but the majesty of the Lawgiver, that is to be the standard of obedience. . . . Some, indeed, might reckon such minute and arbitrary rules as these as trifling. But the principle involved in obedience or disobedience was none other than the same principle which was tried in Eden at the foot of the forbidden tree. It is really this: Is the Lord to be obeyed in all things whatsoever He commands? Is He a holy Lawgiver? Are His creatures bound to give implicit assent to His will?[5]

Are we willing to call sin “sin” not because it is big or little, but because God’s law forbids it?

Will you begin to look at sin as an offense against a holy God, instead of as a personal defeat only? Will you begin to take personal responsibility for your sin, realizing that as you do, you must depend on the grace of God? And will you decide to obey God in all areas of life, however insignificant the issue may be?

Many Christians have what we might call a “cultural holiness.” They adapt to the character and behavior pattern of Christians around them. As the Christian culture around them is more or less holy, so these Christians are more or less holy. But God has not called us to be like those around us. He has called us to be like Himself. Holiness is nothing less than conformity to the character of God.[1]

Just as He cannot but know what is right, so He cannot but do what is right.

We ourselves do not always know what is right, what is just and fair. At times we agonize over decisions having moral overtones. “What is the right thing to do?” we ask.

God never vacillates. He always does what is just and right without the slightest hesitation. It is impossible in the very nature of God for Him to do otherwise.

The holiness of God also includes His perfect conformity to His own divine character. That is, all of His thoughts and actions are consistent with His holy character. By contrast, consider our own lives. Over time, as we mature in the Christian life, we develop a certain degree of Christian character. We grow in such areas as truthfulness, purity, and humility. But we do not always act consistently with our character. We tell a lie or allow ourselves to get trapped into a series of impure thoughts. Then we are dismayed with ourselves for these actions because they are inconsistent with our character. This never happens to God. He always acts consistently with His holy character.

But it is impossible in the very nature of God that He should ever be unfair. Because He is holy, all His actions are holy. We must accept by faith the fact that God is holy, even when trying circumstances make it appear otherwise. To complain against God is in effect to deny His holiness and to say He is not fair.

“It is less injury to Him to deny His being, than to deny the purity of it; the one makes Him no God, the

other a deformed, unlovely, and a detestable God . . . he that saith God is not holy speaks much worse than he th...

Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? EXODUS 15:11

God does not accept the excuse, “Well, that’s just the way I am,” or even the more hopeful statement, “Well, I’m still growing in that area of my life.”

What about us? Do we sometimes feel we have no choice but to shade the truth a little, or commit just a slightly dishonest act?

Therefore every time we sin, we are doing something God hates. He hates our lustful thoughts, our pride and jealousy, our outbursts of temper, and our rationalization that the end justifies the means. We need to be gripped by the fact that God hates all these things.

We need to cultivate in our own hearts the same hatred of sin God has. Hatred of sin as sin, not just as something disquieting or defeating to ourselves, but as displeasing to God, lies at the root of all true holiness.

“How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

In fact, biblical evidence indicates that God may judge the sins of His saints more severely than those of the world.

that he might learn not to run from the command of God.

wherever He finds it. Frequent contemplation on the holiness of God and His consequent hatred of sin is a strong deterrent against trifling with sin. We are told to live our lives on earth as strangers in reverence and fear

Granted, the love of God to us through Jesus Christ should be our primary motivation to holiness.

“For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous”

Scripture speaks of both a holiness which we have in Christ before God, and a holiness which we are to strive after.

holy.” That is, we are through Christ made holy in our standing before God, and called to be holy in our daily lives.

indeed, whether we have any warrant for saying that a man can possibly be converted without being consecrated to God. More consecrated he doubtless can be, and will be as his grace increases; but if he was not consecrated to God in the very day that he was converted and born again, I do not know what conversion means.”[1]

“What a strange kind of salvation do they desire that care not for holiness. . . . They would be saved by Christ and yet be out of Christ in a fleshly state. . . . They would have their sins forgiven, not that they may walk with God in love, in time to come, but that they may practice their enmity against Him without any fear of punishment.”[2]

Therefore, we may say that no one can trust in Jesus Christ for true salvation unless he trusts in Him for holiness. This does not mean the desire for holiness must be a conscious desire at the time a person comes to Christ, but rather it means that the Holy Spirit who creates within us saving faith also creates within us the desire for holiness. He simply does not create one without the other.

If we have experienced it at all, we will experience not only forgiveness of our sins but also freedom from sin’s dominion.

He is simply telling us that a “faith” that does not result in works—in a holy life, in other words—is not a living faith but a dead one, no better than that which the demons possess.

I know it is there, yet I justify it in some way like the child who says, “Well, he hit me first.” When we are holding on to some sin, we are not pursuing holiness and we cannot have fellowship with God.

Holiness is also required for our own well-being

When God speaks to us about some sin, we need to heed and take action.

so I called up the property manager, reported my first accident, and offered to pay for a new fence post. As Peter said, “Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear”

“If a man cleanses himself from [ignoble purposes], he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work” (2 Timothy 2:21).

The only safe evidence that we are in Christ is a holy life.

John said everyone who has within him the hope of eternal life purifies himself just as Christ is pure (1 John 3:3). Paul said, “Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Romans 8:14).

but the fact He dared to ask it. Here was Jesus in direct confrontation with people who hated Him. He had just told them they were of their father the devil, and that they wanted to carry out his desires. Surely if any people had a reason to point out to Him some careless act of His or some flaw of His character, they would. Furthermore, Jesus asked this question in the presence of His disciples, who lived with Him continuously and had ample opportunity to observe any inconsistencies. Yet Jesus dared to ask the question because He knew there was only one answer. He was without sin.

But the holiness of Jesus was more than simply the absence of actual sin. It was also a perfect conformity to the will of His Father. He stated that He came down from heaven “not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me”

Whenever we seriously contemplate the holiness of God, our natural reaction is to say with Isaiah, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts”

Now it may be that six months ago Satan would not have come to you with such a suggestion because you were not troubled about your thoughts. But now that the Holy Spirit has begun to reveal how sinful your thoughts of lust and resentment and pride really are, you may begin to have doubts about your salvation.